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It is necessary to address the broader societal dimensions of energy transitions because unwanted outcomes are likely to appear even if the main goal is a more sustainable future. We need to be able to anticipate and prepare for those, as they carry a possibility of hindering or stagnating transitions altogether.
Description: Sustainability transitions are enacted from various viewpoints with keen political and economic support required. They are to be studied as value-laden and uncertain with potential to change the world. The systemic transformations to sustainable futures must cover all aspects of society, because while striving for something better, unintended outcomes may appear and disrupt the transition. One such important phenomenon deals with the possible security implications of the low-carbon energy transition. In their broader sense, they have received little attention in sustainability transition research. In the context of energy provision, especially the literature on the geopolitics of renewables and the global political economy of energy transformation have started to fill this research gap. To give an example, a single electric vehicle requires more natural resources in its production phase than a conventional combustion engine. Those resources are either scarce, have controlled access, or both, with an additional shadow of inhumane production. Yet, even if humane conditions and access are provided, there are still conflicts left to foresee or solve, such as with local population or wider ecological damages. Further, broader security implications extending national borders and ranging from justice and equality between peoples and societies, require consideration in order to ensure a more sustainable transition.
The presentations in this session address the topics that connect the (research) streams of sustainability transitions and security, defence, just transitions, equity or social justice in either regional, national or global scope. In this session, we hope to cover broader theoretical thinking around, for instance, securitisation and depoliticisation, but also the empirical knowledge around businesses as providers of security of supply through their value chains, and governance around the transitions.
Conveners: Marja Helena Sivonen (Finnish Environment Institute and Tampere University), Sakari Höysniemi (Aleksanteri Institute and University of Helsinki), Emma Hakala (Finnish Institute of International Affairs)
Federica Prandin: Collective identity & domestic policymaking at play: the EU-Russia climate cooperation paradox
Janne M. Korhonen, Jussi T. Eronen & Tere Váden: Preliminary assessment of materials demand of rapid greenhouse gas reduction and long term steady state economy in Finland
Sakari Höysniemi: Energy security and securitisation: Exploring analytical approaches up and beyond Copenhagen School
Hanna Lempinen: A(n un)just energy transition: A Finnish case study
Paula Kivimaa: Policy and political (in)coherence, security, and Nordic-Baltic energy transitions
Emma Hakala: (Re-)Conceptualising security in the time of sustainability transitions
This session discusses a range of approaches for exploring and addressing novel solutions for sustainability transformation and innovation in food systems and the role of research in promoting innovation.
Description: Technologies, systemic innovations, and research are critical for the sustainable transformation of the food system. All these elements have a deep impact on food production, land use, GHG emissions, diets, and waste management. Research, in particular, plays a vital role in charting a positive direction for global food security, nutrition, and health. Through systemic, creative, and holistic approaches, research has the potential to raise awareness and bring about comprehensive change in attitudes, political thought, and action.
This session discusses a range of approaches for exploring and addressing novel solutions for sustainability transformation and innovation in food systems and the role of research in promoting innovation. It acknowledges that actors and agencies in the agricultural and food value chains must rethink innovations and reinvent governance and procedures at all scales, both locally and globally, to coordinate overarching reforms of their socio-technical and socio-ecological systems. The examination of actors in the value chains necessitates an inclusive look and involvement of smallholders, industry, and interest organisations with diverse backgrounds – also beyond the usual suspects. Therefore, the session aims to answer the following questions, amongst others: What are the challenges and opportunities faced by the agricultural and food value chain actors to implement the sustainability transformation? How can local and regional actors seek new solutions with a focus on the sustainability of the food system? What is the role of research and what are the mechanisms in promoting innovations for sustainable food system transformations?
Sustainable food system transformation calls for innovation and collaboration across actors and regions to co-create and implement novel solutions in different parts of the world. The role of research in producing knowledge and solutions is unarguable, but the models and mechanisms that (1) bridge together researchers across disciplines and further (2) integrate research into practical, technological, social, and organisational innovations need to be better explored. Such mechanisms also relate - on one side - to policy processes that should promote systemic approaches in knowledge production and communication, and on the other side, to funding models that should support research in being problem-based and beneficial to society. The session includes case studies from the global South and North, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative empirical research and original theoretical contributions.
Conveners: Silvia Gaiani (Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki), Erja Kettunen (University of Turku), Guenwoo Lee (Japan International Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)), Hanna Martin (University of Gothenburg), Nadja Nordling (Tampere University), Ayu Pratiwi (University of Turku)
Niko Räty, Toni Ryynänen, Hanna Tuomisto: Farmers of cellular agriculture
Tanja Kaufmann, Bärbel Hüsing, Ariane Voglhuber-Slavinsky: Intermediate value chains as a new model for local and regional actors in the agro-food-system – a path towards a sustainable transition?
Ariane Voglhuber-Slavinsky, Bärbel Hüsing, Tanja Kaufmann, Charlotte Freudenberg: Multi-actor co-creation approach in the establishment of intermediate food value chains
Irene Kuhmonen et al.: Examining the resilience and vulnerability of the Finnish food system with alternative future scenarios
Erja Kettunen and Bruna Zolin: Sustainable food exports from Finland to China? Assessing trends, environmental impacts and future prospects
Silvia Gaiani and Urszula Ala-Karvia.: The role of Academia in Transition to sustainable food systems – the Una Europa project approach and Academia4SFS network
Non-human animals are often dismissed or disregarded in sustainability discussions. We argue that it is important to include them for at least two reasons: to make their suffering and rights visible and also to remind discussants that humans are also animals. We hope this session will also encourage collaboration among scholars interested in non-human animals and sustainability.
Description: Today over 65 billion farmed animals are slaughtered annually to produce food and clothes (Allievi et al., 2015). In turn, the exponential increase of both human beings and farmed animals is a major driver of the decline and extinction of wild animal species (Díaz et al., 2019). Moreover, countless other wild animals experience various degrees of harm due to human activities. Yet, the plight of non-human animals is rarely explicitly discussed in the context of sustainable development (cf. Vinnari & Vinnari, 2014). Wild non-human animals, plants, bacteria, archaea, waterways, and the atmosphere are all treated as a monolith most often labelled as ’environment’ or ‘nature’, while farmed animals hover between society and the environment. Such an ontology is problematic as it relegates domesticated animals to an existential limbo between society and the environment, while grouping wild animals together with inanimate beings such as rocks and rivers (see Tovey, 2003).
Against this background, this session brings together scholars interested in advancing the inclusion of non-human animals in the definition of sustainability as well as in sustainability transformations.
Conveners: Markus Vinnari (University of Helsinki) & Eija Vinnari (Tampere University)
José-Carlos García-Rosell: Animal welfare activism in small tourism companies
Katja Tiisala: Introducing sentiocentric sustainability
Markus Vinnari & Eija Vinnari: How to set sustainability goals that matter? A bottom-up approach involving ethical theories and non-human animals
This session explores the challenges of modelling sustainability transformations from the perspective of social-ecological systems. The diversity of methods, problems, and possible solutions in modelling transformations are explored and discussed interactively with the audience.
Description: Designing and guiding systemic sustainability transformations requires an in-depth understanding on how transformative change emerges from complex, adaptive interactions between human actors, institutions and ecosystem dynamics. Social-ecological system (SES) models, both simulation models and models that statistically describe SES structures, have proven to provide a powerful approach for investigating the nature and outcomes of human-environment interactions, including identification and testing of key leverage points at various scales. Diverse values and worldviews can be included in SES models.
Envisioning sustainability solutions necessitates broadening the use of SES models and strengthening the engagement between SES modelers, stakeholders and local communities. The predictive models of the COVID-19 pandemic and the successful use of economic and ecological models in society provide robust evidence on how modelling can be utilised in addressing local and global challenges.
Modeling transformations in SES is challenging and requires pushing modeling frontiers. This session collates the current knowledge of modeling approaches that account for human-environment connections. The session emphasises the future directions of SES models and brings together people across different disciplines to discuss the development needs of SES modelling approaches. In doing so, the state of the art for modelling the complexity of SES interconnections is presented whilst exploring the key research questions related to systemic sustainability transformations.
Conveners: Dr. Johanna Yletyinen (University of Jyväskylä), Dr. Juan Carlos Rocha (Stockholm Resilience centre)
Theresa Boiger, Claudia Mair-Bauernfeind, Tobias Stern: Modeling the sustainability of wood use from a system’s view
Roope Kaaronen: Agent-based models in sustainability research: a critical discussion of potential and limitations
Elizabeth M. Miller, Olli Sahimaa, and Minna Halme: Pursuing more impactful sustainability initiatives: Adapting social-ecological systems thinking and methods for organizations and management
Ruslan Gunko, Lauri Rapeli, and Patrik Karell: Striving with global stress on a local level. Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the relationship between people and nature?
Lena Rölfer, María Máñez Costa, Louis Celliers, Sergio Rosendo, Timothy Smith, and David J. Abson: Identifying leverage points to enhance climate resilience
The session focuses on what kind of roles law and legal governance perform in sustainable transitions in the climate, energy and environmental systems.
Description: Sustainability science and the global science panels (IPCC and IPBES) call for a rapid systemic transformation to sustainability. This overarching goal will require numerable smaller technological, social and governance innovations and transitions to be realised. Law is instrumental in driving transitions and the broader transformation, but law also establishes boundary conditions for such a change. While these broad-brush dynamics are well-understood, there is a need for further analysis, insight and examples of the various roles law and legal governance play in sustainability transitions and transformation. To fill this gap, this session focuses on what kind of roles law and legal governance perform in sustainable transitions in the climate, energy and environmental systems.
Conveners: Kaisa Huhta (CCEEL, University of Eastern Finland), Niko Soininen (University of Eastern Finland), Seita Romppanen (SYKE), Antti Belinskij (SYKE)
Partner Institutions: The UEF Centre for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law (CCEEL) and the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)
Rosa Ballardini and Juha Vesala: Sustainability Transitions in Plastic Ecosystems - Fostering Sustainable Technologies through Patent Law
Hanna Salo, Harri Kalimo, Petrus Kautto and Topi Turunen: Transformative regulatory instruments for sustainability transitions: From energy efficiency to circularity within the Ecodesign framework
Lena Schøning, Vera Helene Hausner and Mathilde Daasvatn Morel: Transition to Environmentally Sustainable Activities: A Legal Case Study
Jukka Mähönen and Taina Pihlajarinne: Intellectual property rights, SMES and sustainability
Jukka Similä and Tomi Tuominen: Theorising the Role of Law in Sustainability Transitions: A Case Study on the Transport and Mobility System
This session will provide a platform for knowledge sharing and promoting academic excellence regarding disruptive innovations/technologies and methods that support sustainable development in different areas of food systems.
Description: The current architecture of food systems is mainly based on non-renewable resources, which can lead to many critical global issues such as loss of biodiversity, climate change, and overall resource depletion (i.e., energy, nutrients, water, soil, and land). Meanwhile, about 750 million people suffer from severe levels of food insecurity, and many more are malnourished and/or obese. More than 30% of global food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted annually. It is evident that a transition from the current whole food system to a more efficient, healthier, equal, and consumer- and environment-centered food system is necessary. This transition, however, should be supported and encouraged globally by common policies.
This session and session 22 focus on new solutions and/or approaches that enhance the sustainable transition of food systems, including production, processing, storage, packaging, marketing, distribution, consumption, consumers, recycling, and disposal. Additionally, we will discuss how to measure the environmental sustainability or more holistic sustainability of food production and consumption. Specifically, the sessions will include the following subtopics and themes:
1) Food, agriculture and environmental policies and their integration
2) Food design and production technologies and methods
3) Environmental footprinting of food system and products
4) Food distribution chain
5) Food security, storage, and safety
6) Food packaging
7) Nutrition and diet
8) Food and consumer experience and choices
9) Food waste minimisation and valorisation
10) Holistic sustainability of the food systems
Conveners: Thao Minh Ho (University of Helsinki), Kirsi S. Mikkonen (University of Helsinki), Fabio Valoppi (University of Helsinki), Juha-Matti Katajajuuri (Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE))
Shuddhodana, Jutta Varis, Pauliina Lankinen, Pekka Varmanen, Laila Seppä, Mari Sandell, Kirsi S. Mikkonen: Tasty, ecological, and protein-rich fungal food grown using food industry side-streams
Delia Mangelkramer: Fostering a just transition towards a sustainable and resilient future food system in Germany
Kamaljit Moirangthem, Ndegwa Henry Maina, Dilip K. Rai, Rossana Coda: Biotransformation of brewers’ spent grain to beverage prototypes
Rachel Mazac, Matti Sihvonen, Niina Kaartinen, Satu Männistö, Xavier Irz, Kari Hyytiäinen, Teppo Mattson, Hanna Tuomisto, Chiara Lombardini: Leveraging legumes in current consumption for transitions towards future sustainable diets
Anne-Maria Pajari, Essi Päivärinta, Ville Kalliomäki, Tiina Pellinen, Sini Närvä, Suvi Itkonen, Mikko Lehtovirta, Niina Kaartinen, Satu Männistö: The BEAN MAN study – a dietary intervention trial on replacing red and processed meat with legume foods in healthy working age Finnish men
Liisa Korkalo, Topi Hovinen, Essi Skaffari, Henna Vepsäläinen, Reetta Lehto, Kaija Nissinen, Riitta Freese, Maijaliisa Erkkola: What are the most important sources of nutrients in plant-based diets? A cross-sectional analysis of vegan, plant-forward, and omnivorous diets in Finnish children
Hossein Eslami and Dia Bandaly: A closed-loop supply chain model with explicit incorporation of consumers’ role: The case of reusable food packages
From extreme weather events to psychosocial distress, climate change poses different types of risks to societies, communities and individuals. Civil society – NGOs, humanitarian organisations, activists and others – plays an important role in disaster preparedness and crisis resilience. In this session, we look for effective ways for the academic community and civil society to co-design research-based solutions for supporting climate safety. The workshop consists of an expert introduction followed by a group-work with scenarios related to climate safety.
Description: Workshop: Climate Safety, Research and Civil Society
Climate change poses direct risks, indirect risks and transition risks to societies, communities and individuals. It affects social and cultural issues, health and psychosocial well-being. Civil society – NGOs, humanitarian organisations, activists and others – plays an important role in disaster preparedness and crisis resilience.
In this session, we discuss how climate safety can be improved for civil society and by civil society in the future. We look for effective ways for the academic community and civil society actors to co-design research-based solutions for supporting climate safety.
This mini-workshop consists of an expert introduction followed by a group-work with scenarios related to climate safety. We invite researchers of different disciplines, practitioners, students and specialised volunteers to participate in the workshop. We adopt a transdisciplinary, innovative use of the term safe climate. Possible approaches to climate safety in the context of research and civil society include:
We aim to identify synergies, challenges, good practices and new ideas related to climate safety in order to create systemic change in the form of structures that support collaboration between researchers and civil society in the future.
Conveners: Dr. Rosa Rantanen (University of Helsinki); Dr. Emma Hakala (Finnish Institute for International Affairs)
Sustainability research mostly concerns systems. Yet, the field rarely reflects on the multitude of ways that systems can be understood and studied. In this session we take stock of the variety of systems theories and methods, as well as their implications for sustainability research.
Description: Systems thinking and systems science focus on relationships between things and wholes as formed by parts. There is increasing demand for a systems perspective to sustainability and transitions issues from both governance and within the academic community. Much of academic education and the science-policy interface is however designed with a priority on particularities and precision at the expense of understanding wholes. In this session we intend to learn about how sustainability scientists can produce and communicate knowledge about systems.
Sustainability science stands to benefit from insights from systems science and its discussion of systems methods.
The scholarly tradition of systems science may be traced to the post-war cybernetics community. The field has historically been interdisciplinary, transferring knowledge and principles across disciplines such as ecology, biology, engineering and organisational studies among others. Over the decades this scientific community has developed a wide range of methods including computational modelling, qualitative mapping and critical boundary analysis. Systems thinking approaches - or analogous cognitive modes - are however also applied in the arts, in traditional knowledge systems and everyday heuristics or common-sense thought.
Conveners: Doctoral researcher Henri Wiman (Technology Research Centre VTT and HELSUS), Dr. Milutin Stojanovic (University of Helsinki), Associate Professor Michiru Nagatsu (University of Helsinki)
M. Äijälä, M. Tedeschi, J. Siponen and J. Leppinen: Teaching systems thinking in climate & sustainability education
Markos Xenakis: What kind of statistics underpin sustainable spatial planning?
Milutin Stojanovic: The crisis in science, systems thinking, and lessons for sustainability science
Johnn Andersson, Thomas Lennerfors, Helena Fornstedt and Paul Plummer: Asocio-techno-ecological systems perspective on radical shifts to more sustainable modes of production and consumption in society
Andra-Ioana Horcea-Milcu: Transformative research for sustainability: characteristics, tensions, and ways forward
Jenneth Parker: Philosophies for Sustainability Research: Exploring the Synergies between Critical Realism and Systems Ontology
Climate policies in the housing sector may cause adverse effects by increasing energy poverty, environmental inequality and segregation. Finding sustainability-driven solutions is needed at different levels and locations.
Description: Housing and construction represent approximately 30% of total GHG emissions and 40% of total energy use in the European Union. Decarbonisation of the building stock requires substantial increases in investments in energy efficiency, use of renewable energy sources, higher renovation rates and uptake of carbon embodied building materials, such as wood. In parallel to the global climate challenge, there is a rising social and spatial polarisation both in urban and rural contexts. Climate policies in the housing sector may also cause adverse effects by increasing energy poverty, environmental inequality and segregation. Together these challenges affect the future environmental and social performance of actors in the built environment, and affect the viability of just transition at household, municipal and industry level.
Our session addresses, but is not limited to, the following questions: What examples can be found on holistic sustainability-driven practices (encompassing both environmental and social aspects) in the built environment? How can sustainability-driven solutions (technological, social) be diffused? How do different transdisciplinary approaches (experiments, pilots, innovations) generate capacity for actors to recreate new practices toward sustainable change? How is energy poverty and environmental inequality manifested in the built environment sector?
While focusing on intertwined climate and societal challenges in Finland, the session provides a lively interaction forum among academia, construction sector businesses, intermediaries, and policy makers. Interaction and knowledge co-creation are cross-cutting ways of our working mode to accelerate sustainability transition in the built environment, as well as sharing insights in international communities of knowledge.
Conveners: Professor Anne Toppinen (University of Helsinki), Research Professor Katja Lähtinen (Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)), Professor Seppo Junnila (Aalto University), Assistant Professor Sanna Ala-Mantila (University of Helsinki)
Ali Amiri: The potential GHG emissions reduction by wooden buildings
Charlotta Harju: Consumers’ consciousness for sustainable consumption and their perceptions of wooden building product quality
Antti Kinnunen: Carbon sequestration and storage potential of urban residential environment
Anne Viljanen, Katja Lähtinen, Vesa Kanninen and Anne Toppinen: A Tale of Five Wood Cities: Role of Municipalities in Market Diffusion of Residential Wooden Multistorey Construction and Retrofits
Tuija Kajoskoski: Exploring justice in energy transition: Energy vulnerability and the ability to adopt low-carbon heating
Svein Gunnar Kjøde: A designerly, multi-actor approach for transitioning the construction industry. -A case study of cross-sectoral innovation for sustainability.
David Lazarevic, Saija Mokkila and Anne Toppinen: Low Carbon with a splash justice: mapping experimentation in the housing sector
Comments by Dr. Matti Kuronen (vice president at Pohjola Rakennus)
Join us on a discussion platform for different stakeholder-perspectives, going beyond academia! We invite NGOs, government and industry representatives to come forward with novel solutions and perspectives for rethinking sustainability for seafood, as we see the need for systematic transformation in global fisheries – hence our call for novel technological and organisational perspectives!
Description: In line with the holistic thinking underlying the SSD22 Systemic Transformations to Sustainable Futures, this session aims to provide a constructive and diverse discussion platform for different stakeholder-perspectives, going beyond academia.
The sustainability of our seas is an obvious issue, not least in light of the increasing dependence on fish imports of many developed economies, including Finland (Polsa, 2018; Saarni 2021). Yet in spite of knowledge about the associated increasing displacement of environmental and social sustainability impacts via imported fish (Helvey et al, 2017; Scott, 2020; Xu et al. 2020) and the global threat of fishing at biologically unsustainable levels (UN, 2021), we are missing novel, interdisciplinary (McKuin et al. 2021) and inter-connected technological and organisational perspectives that address the sustainability issues systematically, instead of taking narrow life-cycle-assessment approaches (Vauterin et al. 2021). The theme of this session calls for such solutions, drawing from global experiences and inviting comparative perspectives. These could include carbon footprint or social footprint assessments, and relate these to technological, social and/ or organisational innovations, drawing from multiple disciplinary perspectives while focusing on co-creation efforts for sustainability transformations. Thereby, this session aims to expand the reach and impact of HELSUS’s research theme “consumption and production”, as relates to Sustainable Development Goal 14 - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources (UN, 2021).
Conveners: Philipp Kanstinger (WWF Germany), Fredrik Salenius (University of Helsinki), Bodo Steiner (University of Helsinki), Stephen Stohs (NOAA)
[Contact: bodo.steiner@helsinki.fi]
Dr. Philipp Kanstinger (WWF Germany)
Prof. Marko Lindroos (University of Helsinki)
Dr. Fredrik Salenius (University of Helsinki)
Dr. Stephen Stohs (NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center)
Panel Chair
Adj. Prof. Sarah Mesnick (Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA))
Erik Olsen, Livar Frøyland and Andreea-Laura Cojocaru: Bridging fisheries oceanography and nutrition in future seafood systems to contribute to achieving the UN SDGs.
Laura Cappelatti and Mari Granström (Origin by Ocean Oy, Finland): Integrating native seaweed farming to aquaculture in the Baltic Sea: prospects and challenges
Andreea L. Cojocaru, Frank Jensen, Kamila Kulmambetova, Rasmus Nielsen, Ruth B. Pincinato, and Ragnar Tveterås: Externalities of Multi-Technology Salmon Aquaculture and Opportunities for a Unified Framework for Regulation
Ryan Kueber and Nobuyuki Yagi: A Hedonic Regression to Estimate the Value of Commercial Catch Method
We need systemic change towards sustainable ways of living, working and doing business. In this session, we focus on the role of active agents to promote that change.
Description: There is a need for societies across the globe to undertake systemic change toward sustainable ways of living, working and doing business (Dyllick & Muff, 2015; Loorbach et al. 2017). For sustainability transitions to succeed, the proactive role of actors is critical (Geels 2011; Koistinen et al. 2020). Sustainability agency refers to intentional, proactive individual or collective level action geared toward sustainable futures, also involving non-material forms of agency (Teerikangas et al. 2021).
In this track, we seek to appreciate how individual, collective, organisational, and collaborative forms of agency facilitate or hinder sustainability transitions.
Conveners: Marileena Mäkelä (University of Jyväskylä) Katariina Koistinen (University of Turku), Satu Teerikangas (University of Turku), Tiina Onkila (University of Jyväskylä)
Alexander Nordt: Creating spaces for low-carbon innovations
Georg Reischauer & Lea Fuenfschilling: Digital sustainability
Anna Härri & Jarkko Levänen: Limited agency and social rebound in sustainability transitions: a case of straw utilisation
Anna Karhu & Eini Haaja: Sustainability through trade policy
Daniela Ortiz-Avram, Neli Ovcharova and Alexander Engelmann: Dynamic capabilities for sustainability
This session focuses on research on sustainability-related transformation from the view of transformative learning, teaching, actions and practices and invites theoretical and empirical studies from a broad higher education context.
Description: The role of Higher Education Institutions is to develop sustainable research and educate students on how to deal with wicked problems like global inequality, pandemic threats, and ecological and social climate change dilemmas. One way towards sustainability is to apply a ‘whole-institution approach’ and be authentic in policy, leadership and all other actionacting. Another way is to build solid knowledge networks with partners and stakeholders outside academia. A third way is to empower students and engage them as active,critical and reflective co-learners and co-teachers in a mutual learning/teaching process. These three ways are all interrelated in the transition towards sustainability. Yet, the third option relates closest to transformative learning.
Transformative learning is a frequent concept in contemporary sustainability transition discourses. The UNESCO document Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning objectives (2017), emphasises transformation and transformative learning as fundamental to achieving sustainable development goals. In this document action-orientation, self-directed learning, participation, collaboration, problem-orientation, inter- and transdisciplinarity, and especially transformation are all seen as central.
In many decades, transformative learning has been a significant adult learning approach that has remarkably changed the view of adult learning. Jack Mezirow spent most of his career developing transformative learning. According to Mezirow, learning is a process in which the learners transform problematic frames of reference. The aim of transformative learning is to make these frames reflective, and open for change. Numerous other scholars have tested, developed, and modified Mezirow’s theory to suit various contexts. Therefore, transformative learning now focuses on learning that is holistic, extra rational, integrative, embodied, intuitive, and/or social. There are a number of approaches to the topic ranging from depth psychology, humanism, post-structuralism, or post-humanism, along with discussions about whether or not transformative learning is rational or extra-rational, imaginative, cognitive or emotional, individual or social.
Sustainability-oriented transformation relates to ethics, ontology, epistemology and praxis, and asks for value and worldview deliberations, individual and collective commitment, as well as collaborative, transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge, learning and practice. Even if transformative learning is a possible sustainability learning approach, it is a most demanding and complicated theory. Therefore, transformative learning requires continuous theory development and attesting of methods that allow for co-creation and re-creation of spaces, thoughts and power relations with critical questioning of current dominant ideologies and envisioning of alternative futures. To fulfill the demands of sustainability, transformative learning has to be advanced, tried out, and evaluated meticulously.
Conveners: Lili-Ann Wolff, Marianna Vivitsou, Noora Jaakkola, Saiki Cheah, Antti Laherto (University of Helsinki) | Tuuli Mattelmäki, Kirsi Hakio, Meeri Karvinen (Aalto University) | Mervi Friman (Häme University of Applied Sciences) | Marco Rieckmann (University of Vechta)
Andrea Cecilia Cuesta-Claros, Shirin Malekpour, Rob Raven and Tahl Kestin: Comparing Whole-Institution Models for Sustainability Transformations – What are the implications for transformative learning?
Leyla Angélica Sandoval Hamón: Transformation of Sustainability in Spanish Universities: from practices to policies
Roosa Karvonen: Developing class teacher education through class student teachers' sustainability-related transformative learning skills
J. Siponen, J. Taurinen, M. Äijäjä, K. Lauri, l. Riuttanen: What are the competencies needed for climate change mitigation and adaptation in society?
Marianna Vivitsou & Lili-Ann Wolff: Metaphors of sustainability and transformation in the Covid-19 era in the context of hybrid online university pedagogy – Two example cases at the University of Helsinki
Salla Jokela, Jonathon Taylor, and Markus Laine: Team-based approach for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Education at Tampere University
Elina Oksanen, Elli Hämynen: Biodiversity education as an example of transformative approach in higher education
Mika Järvinen and Hanna Paulomäki: How to increase engineers’ competence to tackle ecological crises – an application of transformative approach in energy engineers teaching
This session convenes around an urgent necessity of building up effective and acceptable ways of contributing to the removal of atmospheric CO2. The workshop draws from the ideas of sustainability science of turning towards and addressing grand systemic challenges.
Description:
For several centuries, humans have excelled in mobilising fossil fuel reserves and converting them to atmospheric CO2. The current state of climate emergency and the need for deep-reaching societal and metabolic transformations calls for a reversal of this logic: large-scale, effective and even profitable ways of drawing carbon down from the atmosphere.
Relevant questions and topic include but are not limited to
the cycles of carbon in forests, agricultural land and urban green areas
processes of treating streams of organic material to produce biochar and other stable carbon products and compounds
transformations of the forest industry to propel carbon drawdown
qualities and the use of biochar in different applications
economics, business models and regulation of carbon drawdown
systemic mapping of potential of and conditions for large-scale carbon drawdown in different geographical context and sectors of human activity
Conveners: Mikko Jalas (Aalto University), Priit Tammeorg (University of Helsinki), Oana Iliescu (Aalto University)
Joyson Ahongshangbam, Liisa Kulmala, Outi Tahvonen, Esko Karvinen, Olivia Kuuri-Riutta, Leena Järvi: CO2 flux measurements on urban lawn using eddy covariance: Effect of maintenance and construction practices
Minttu Havu, Liisa Kulmala, and Leena Järvi: Estimating the biogenic carbon sink of the city of Helsinki
Hei Shing Lee, Leena Järvi, Liisa Kulmala, Minttu Havu, Ranja Hautamäki, Mari Ariluoma: Maximising carbon sinks and storages of urban green areas at Hiedanranta, Tampere
Arttu Kärkkäinen, Oana Iliescu, Mikko Jalas and Esko Salo: Biosolids to Biochar: an overview of opportunities in the Greater Helsinki area
Aino Kainulainen: Pyrolysis of sewage sludge - carbon drawdown while removing pollutants
Caroline Moinel: A life cycle approach to urban green spaces
This session discusses a range of approaches for exploring and addressing novel solutions for sustainability transformation and innovation in food systems and the role of research in promoting innovation.
Description: Technologies, systemic innovations, and research are critical for the sustainable transformation of the food system. All these elements have a deep impact on food production, land use, GHG emissions, diets, and waste management. Research, in particular, plays a vital role in charting a positive direction for global food security, nutrition, and health. Through systemic, creative, and holistic approaches, research has the potential to raise awareness and bring about comprehensive change in attitudes, political thought, and action.
This session discusses a range of approaches for exploring and addressing novel solutions for sustainability transformation and innovation in food systems and the role of research in promoting innovation. It acknowledges that actors and agencies in the agricultural and food value chains must rethink innovations and reinvent governance and procedures at all scales, both locally and globally, to coordinate overarching reforms of their socio-technical and socio-ecological systems. The examination of actors in the value chains necessitates an inclusive look and involvement of smallholders, industry, and interest organisations with diverse backgrounds – also beyond the usual suspects. Therefore, the session aims to answer the following questions, amongst others: What are the challenges and opportunities faced by the agricultural and food value chain actors to implement the sustainability transformation? How can local and regional actors seek new solutions with a focus on the sustainability of the food system? What is the role of research and what are the mechanisms in promoting innovations for sustainable food system transformations?
Sustainable food system transformation calls for innovation and collaboration across actors and regions to co-create and implement novel solutions in different parts of the world. The role of research in producing knowledge and solutions is unarguable, but the models and mechanisms that (1) bridge together researchers across disciplines and further (2) integrate research into practical, technological, social, and organisational innovations need to be better explored. Such mechanisms also relate - on one side - to policy processes that should promote systemic approaches in knowledge production and communication, and on the other side, to funding models that should support research in being problem-based and beneficial to society.
Conveners: Silvia Gaiani (Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki), Erja Kettunen (University of Turku), Guenwoo Lee (Japan International Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)), Hanna Martin (University of Gothenburg), Nadja Nordling (Tampere University), Ayu Pratiwi (University of Turku)
Maura Ferri et al.: Novel solutions proposed by scientific research in food residues minimisation and valorisation: the PROLIFIC case and the coffee by-product example
Genevieve Gesan-Guiziou, Baerbel Husing, Karin Ostergren, Andreas Papadakis, Theodore Zahariadis: Challenges and working practices for the application of Blockchain in Intermediate dairy Value Chains
Vinod Vijay Kumar, Natasha Järviö, Hanna L. Tuomisto: Evaluating environmental impacts of cultured meat using consequence analysis: A Finland case study
Paul Plummer, Johan Andersson, Thomas Lennerfors:Exploring innovation processes in the Swedish wild berry industry from the perspective of agri-food sustainability transitions
Andrea S. Downing et al.: Unlocking the unsustainable rice-wheat system of Indian Punjab: Assessing alternatives to crop-residue burning from a systems perspective
Guenwoo Lee and Ayu Pratiwi: Do farmers learn from Facebook group? Evidence from Indonesian aquaculture communities
In this session, we explore the role of science panels in the transition towards sustainable futures. The session aims to critically examine the role of science panels as mobilisers of societal agency, and as such engage with critical questions, including: Are the science panels effective in translating science-based knowledge to the society? Or do they merely act as legitimisers of government authority?
This session presents various models/practices that science panels have taken to mobilise future oriented systems transformation and critically analyse them from the perspective of agency throughout society and in different sectors in education, policy making, civil society, including innovative experiments.
Description: When mobilising a future oriented systems transformation with its complexities and insecurities, the role of science has been seen as crucial. Science panels have become a key element of science-policy and science-based decision making in Finland and more broadly in the world. Different panels are set with diverse mandates and objectives, but also with varying target groups and practices to bring support to decision making as a part of systemic transformation.
This session presents various models/practices the panels have taken to mobilise future oriented systems transformation and critically analyse them from the perspective of agency throughout society and in different sectors in education, policy making, and civil society, including innovative experiments. Furthermore, the session identifies the critical means and resources (human, financial and science-based) to carry out these tasks taking into account the inclusion perspective, as well as position between science, policy and society. The role of science-based knowledge is put into a wider perspective, taking into account the challenges and opportunities introduced by rapid changes of information and communication technologies, different polarisations of societal debates and the use of different means of communication and interaction.
Conveners: Members of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development: Prof. Eeva Furman (Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE) Prof. Minna Halme (Aalto University), Prof. Jouni Jaakkola (University of Oulu), Prof. Lassi Linnanen (LUT University), Prof. Mikko Mönkkönen (University of Jyväskylä), Prof. Juho Saari (University of Tampere), Prof. Arto O. Salonen (University of Eastern Finland), Prof. Katriina Siivonen (University of Turku), Prof. Tuuli Toivonen (University of Helsinki), Prof. Anne Tolvanen (Luke)
Session programme:
Opening
Professor Minna Halme (Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development)
Science panels as interlocutors of synthesized global environmental knowledge in national efforts towards sustainability transformation
Salla Rantala (Finnish Environment Institute)
Juuli Närhi (Finnish Environment Institute)
Science panels in Finland
Professor Emeritus Markku Ollikainen (Finnish Climate Change Panel)
Professor Eeva Furman (Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development)
Science-policy interface at the European level
Arnau Queralt-Bassa (European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils Network (EEAC Network))
Panel Discussion
Facilitator: Professor Minna Halme (Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development)
Speakers:
Professor Emeritus Markku Ollikainen (Finnish Climate Change Panel)
Professor Eeva Furman (Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development)
Olli Kärkkäinen (Finnish Ministry of Finance)
Tanja Suni (Finnish Ministry of Environment)
Closing remarks and Farewell
Professor Minna Halme (Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development)
The aim of this session is to discuss existing and potential sustainability solutions, and how these could, in principle, serve and/or partly reconcile different economic paradigms (growth, postgrowth), thus acting as concrete vehicles to foster sustainability.
Description: The Sustainable Development Goals, along with ancillary regional and national political processes such as the European Union Green Deal (2021), provide goal setting towards a more sustainable future. The aim of this session is to discuss existing and potential sustainability solutions, and how these could, in principle, serve and/or partly reconcile different economic paradigms (growth, postgrowth), thus acting as concrete vehicles to foster sustainability.
We define solutions as innovations of social, ecological, technological or other nature aimed at reforming the use and distribution of natural resources in economic systems. Examples are product modular design and product longevity, abiotic energy, plant-based and biomass-based alternatives to meat and fossil resources, sufficiency and sharing, servitisation and digitalisation, biodiversity-based solutions and biotechnology.
Solutions are adopted (or rejected) by multiple societal actors who hold diverse worldviews and agendas, including public administrations, large companies, small and medium enterprises, non-governmental organisations, think tanks, NGOs, citizens and consumers.
Questions to be discussed during the session include:
Conveners: Dalia D’amato (University of Helsinki), Angelina Korsunova-Tsaruk (University of Helsinki), Petteri Repo (Aalto University and University of Helsinki)
Annukka Näyhä: Future-oriented collaborative business models as facilitators of sustainability: insights from the project aiming for transition framework development
Andreas Braun: Is Eco-Industrial Development just ‘more of the same‘? A Hegelian dialectic view on an emerging concept
Ashkan Pakseresht, Sina Ahmadi Kaliji, Karin Hakelius: The role of blockchain technology in the transition towards a circular food system
Mira Grönroos: Biodiversity-based solutions and human well-being
Anu Laakkonen, Katri Rusanen, Teppo Hujala & Jouni Pykäläinen: Transformation of Finnish pulp and paper business field towards sustainable circular forest-based bioeconomy
Jana Moritz, Hanna Tuomisto, Toni Ryynänen: A multi-level perspective on Potential transition pathways towards cellular agriculture: Finnish and German political stakeholders’ perceptions of cultured meat
Tina Nyfors: ‘Bottom-up’ Understandings of Ecological Sufficiency
Päivi Timonen and Petteri Repo: Refreshing green transition – consumers’ interpretations of sustainable urban life
Jenneth Parker, Kristin Vala Ragnarsdottir, and Ingrid Stjernquist: Overcoming the 'Stuck in transition' syndrome
With the current interest in building resilience and agency in order to create more socially and ecologically sustainable futures, increasing attention is given to the ways of bringing forth and combining different forms of knowing. This includes the integration of culturally specific traditional knowledge, futures-oriented thinking of Indigenous Peoples, and many other either alternative or new forms of promoting sustainable futures. In this session, our aim is to strengthen the multi-voiced debate and understanding of alternative futures for the benefit of improved individual, organisational, or societal readiness and adaptability to change.
Description: Over the past few years, increasing global interest in, and research of traditional knowledge have emerged in the context of building a more sustainable relationship with nature. However, especially the culturally specific narratives related to Indigenous perspectives are often either misleadingly interpreted or completely ignored. New ways of thinking are needed about how to use Indigenous knowledge as a tool and a body of knowledge to widen the basis of sustainability research (Cajete, 2020).
Most importantly, there is a growing need to broaden the debate in order to imagine and work toward more ecologically and socially sustainable futures (Joutsenvirta and Salonen, 2020; Vataja and Dufva, 2021). Besides collecting impactful research-based knowledge, we need to strengthen the opportunities and conditions (i.e., skills and competences) so that we can learn from each other ways in which more resilient and effective futures-oriented action can take place.
In this session, our interest lies in the different forms of traditional/Indigenous/alternative knowledge and insight that have gained less visibility in the past but could support the co-creation of more sustainable and inclusive futures in significant ways. With Indigenous knowledge, we refer to its definition as the "understandings, skills, and philosophies developed by local communities with long histories and experiences of interaction with their natural surroundings", initiated by UNESCO's programme on Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (Hiwasaki et al., 2014).
With the aim to enhance the awareness, inclusion, and impactful implementation of local and Indigenous knowledge in accelerating this transformation, we welcome papers with topics related to the traditional knowledge of different cultures, futures-oriented thinking among Indigenous Peoples, and the new forms of sustainable development with a non-western focus. In particular, the session will spark a debate on the following issues:
Who owns our environment? What about the future? Whose voices are not being heard? How can we enable and support dialogues between different ways of understanding the world as well as the future? What forms and powers of resilience do less heard groups possess in regards to their specific knowledge and insight? How could the scientific community learn from the previously overlooked knowledge in terms of individual, organisational, or societal readiness and adaptability to change? And finally, how do these worldviews and understandings relate to the current literature on futures literacy and anticipation?
Conveners: Sanna Ketonen-Oksi (Laurea University of Applied Sciences), Hazel Salminen (Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku and the Finnish Society for Futures Studies)
Reetta Toivanen & Anna Varfolomeeva: Sustainable Development Goals and Indigenous livelihoods in the Arctic: a critical analysis of tensions
Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes: The struggle over (un)sustainable futures: the ontological politics between corporate and Indigenous worlds
Geoffrey Nwaka: Local Knowledge for Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation in Africa: Towards Decolonising Climate Science
Vesa Matteo Piludu: Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledges, Ontologies and Biocultural Sustainable Conservation in Latin and North America
Tiina Wikström: Searching for the Way Forward: Going Back to the Seven Grandfather Teachings
Sanna Ketonen-Oksi & Minna Vigren: Understanding the role and importance of agency creation in imagining more inclusive and socially sustainable futures
Andrea Bandoni & Gabriela Forman: Knowledge Transfer in Practice: The Amazonian Cuia´s Tradition and its Possible Contributions to Sustainability and Contemporary Design
Tackling the challenges of urban greening and introducing mainstreaming solutions that reach beyond pilot projects.
Description: Green urban spaces and solutions are crucially needed for our health and well-being, tackling biodiversity crisis, and building resilience to climate change. Although the role of urban green has been recognised in the scientific community and society, many questions remain. Moreover, the scale of greening efforts is far from sufficient to match the challenge.
Many cities in Finland and abroad have made efforts to enhance urban greening, such as conducting pilot projects for green walls and water retention. Yet, despite good intentions, “green” solutions can turn out to be unsustainable, for example requiring high maintenance. New green structures may also host unwanted nonhumans, often labeled as weeds, pests or harmful invasive species. Hard choices but also win-win solutions - e.g., about densification, urban sprawl, brownfield areas, or conservation - are made in urban planning.
This sessions aims to focus on the challenges of urban greening and to introduce mainstreaming solutions that reach beyond pilot projects. Contributions were welcomed from various perspectives - such as green architecture, community living and well-being, policy and planning, ecology, human behaviour, and urban activism - identifying key structures, actors, processes and even radical ideas that can facilitate urban green transformation.
Conveners: Nina Nygren (Tampere University), Tytti Pasanen (THL), Ilona Steiler (Tampere University), Antero Hirvensalo (Tampere University), Sofie Pelsmakers (Tampere University), Helena Leino (Tampere University)
Charles Simpson, Jon Taylor and Clare Heaviside: Current Assessment and Future Potential of Green Roofs in London
Nora Fagerholm, Karl Samuelsson, Salla Eilola, Matteo Giusti, Kamyar Hasanzadeh, Anna Kajosaari, Daniel Koch, Silviya Korpilo, Marketta Kyttä, Ann Legeby,Yu Liu, Søren Præstholm, Christopher Raymond, Tiina Rinne and Stephan Barthel: Pandemic urban resilience in the Nordic context: a cross-city analysis on associations between outdoor recreation and green infrastructure
We need systemic change towards sustainable ways of living, working and doing business. In this session, we focus on the role of active agents to promote that change.
Description: There is a need for societies across the globe to undertake systemic change toward sustainable ways of living, working and doing business (Dyllick & Muff, 2015; Loorbach et al. 2017). For sustainability transitions to succeed, the proactive role of actors is critical (Geels 2011; Koistinen et al. 2020). Sustainability agency refers to intentional, proactive individual or collective level action geared toward sustainable futures, also involving non-material forms of agency (Teerikangas et al. 2021).
In this session, we seek to appreciate how individual, collective, organisational, and collaborative forms of agency facilitate or hinder sustainability transitions.
Conveners: Marileena Mäkelä (University of Jyväskylä), Katariina Koistinen (University of Turku), Satu Teerikangas (University of Turku), Tiina Onkila (University of Jyväskylä)
Minna Vigren & Johanna Ylipulli: Fostering agency of sustainable futures?
Råberg, M., Korsunova, A., Lundberg, P., Vainio, A., Nenko, A., Kurilova, M., Galaktionova, A.: Citisen skills in the CE
Fanni Moilanen: Wage earners perceptions on the greening of work organisations…
Jessie Do, Outi Uusitalo, Mika Skippari and Mitra Salimi: Contributions and risks of AI-assisted marketing to consumer agency
Tuomas Tiainen: Developing sustainability agency in virtual reality
Global climate and environmental changes require transformative solutions at a territorial level. This session aims to co-construct learnings on how to conduct such solutions, based on concrete experiences and case studies.
Description: Global and local climate and environmental changes require urgent solutions. However, incremental solutions have not met the challenges and as a result new transformative pathways need to be devised. The study of transformations to pursue sustainability and climate action has gained increasing relevance in scholarship and practice. In particular, the ‘territorial’ dimension of transformations has garnered much interest, defying the technocratic, top-down and simplistic framing directed to the problem by more traditional approaches. This territorial turn has helped transformations research improve its understanding, among other things, on how multiple forms of simultaneous change interact, overlap, or influence each other; how these changes manifest across different environmental and social contexts, affecting social actors differently; and how can transformative solutions be designed such that they may better integrate justice and local or Indigenous knowledges and values.
However, an integrative framework is still missing to understand how to concretely conduct territorial transformations.
To answer this challenge, this session proposes a participatory dialogue aiming to leverage experiences from different sectors and places to discuss the following questions: How does transformation manifest in different contexts? What conditions and strategies can help build socially robust, collectively validated, and scalable research on sustainable territorial transformations? How can failures arise and how can this risk be avoided?
Three complementing kinds of transformations will be considered in the session: a) enabling transformations, i.e., hands-on attempts at fostering cognitive, cultural or agential enablers for change and human action in local contexts and communities (e.g. Transformation/Transition Labs); b) systemic transformations, aiming to drive innovation, technological, economic and/or institutional change within a particular sector or domain (e.g., energy transitions); and, c) structural transformations, emphasising deep and radical changes in the underlying forms of production and socio-political structures (e.g., circular economy).
Speakers are asked to briefly summarise their experience or case, to then discuss with other participants to extract cross-cutting strategies, best practices, and challenges, and lastly to advance an integrative reflection on territorial transformations.
Conveners: Cristina Zurbriggen (South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS)), Marco Billi (Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2)
Simón Ladino Cano: Combining environmental and climate justice to interrogate the paradoxes of renewable energy transitions in Latin America: the cases of La Guajira (Colombia) and Antofagasta (Chile)
Haveri H, Prass M, Salomaa MM, Sieppi P, Hämäläinen RM: Nature Step to Health: A multisectoral programme to public health and environmental work in Lahti region
Karen Hamann: Four example cases of transformative solutions with innovative processing of grass at the centre stage
Cristina Zurbriggen: Water governance transition: understanding power and knowledge to improve territorial actions in Uruguay
Marco Billi: Fostering Resilient Territorial Transitions in Water and Energy: analytical framework and empirical challenges in Chile
With references to Simon’s (1996) The Sciences of the Artificial, in which he differentiates sciences of what is and sciences of what ought to be, currently the urban ‘science of what is’ is clearly telling us that cities are unsustainable. Social, ecological and economic issues plague cities and are likely to worsen unless urban transformations across these domains can be enacted. Therefore, it can be said that urban sustainability science, in particular, needs to focus on what ought to be.
In this session we invite submissions that take an exploratory approach to urban sustainability research. In particular we are interested in those that use creative, participatory or experimental methods and focus on cultural shifts, knowledge integration, deep leverage points, as well as structural and value changes in our societal systems.
Conveners: Seona Candy (University of Helsinki) & Johanna Ylipulli (Aalto University)
N. Atashi, L. Ruotsalainen, M. Leinonen, S. Kartuunen, X. Li, J. Strömberg, L. Järvi: Predicting The Future Urban Air Quality Using A Novel Hight-Resolution Model For Sustainable Urban Planning And Decision Making — A Case Study Of The Vihdintie City Boulevard In Helsinki
Sanna Ketonen-Oksi: Understanding how we use the future(s) is the key to sustainable urban development
Gabriella Doci, Harald Rohracher,and Olga Kordas: Learning History: a method for capturing and diffusing learning in Urban Transition Management
Eva Heiskanen, Eeva-Lotta Apajalahti and Kaisa Matschoss: The city giveth and the city taketh away: Understanding the challenges of energy communities in cities
Janne I. Hukkinen, Jussi T. Eronen, Nina Janasik, Paavo Järvensivu and Roope Kaaronen: How can cities cope with policy errors in an era of chronic socio-environmental crises?
Jenna Mikus: Eudaemonic Design for Better Cities, Societies, and People
Sara Zaman & Corinna Hertweck: Between IRL and URL: Community-driven discourses that shape the smart city
This session will provide a platform for knowledge sharing and promoting academic excellence regarding disruptive innovations/technologies and methods that support sustainable development in different areas of food systems.
Description: The current architecture of food systems is mainly based on non-renewable resources, which can lead to many critical global issues such as loss of biodiversity, climate change, and overall resource depletion (i.e., energy, nutrients, water, soil, and land). Meanwhile, about 750 million people suffer from severe levels of food insecurity, and many more are malnourished and/or obese. More than 30% of global food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted annually. It is evident that a transition from the current whole food system to a more efficient, healthier, equal, and consumer- and environment-centered food system is necessary. This transition, however, should be supported and encouraged globally by common policies.
This session focuses on new solutions and/or approaches that enhance the sustainable transition of food systems, including production, processing, storage, packaging, marketing, distribution, consumption, consumers, recycling, and disposal. Additionally, we will discuss how to measure the environmental sustainability or more holistic sustainability of food production and consumption. Specifically, this session and session 6 will include the following subtopics and themes:
1) Food, agriculture and environmental policies and their integration
2) Food design and production technologies and methods
3) Environmental footprinting of food system and products
4) Food distribution chain
5) Food security, storage, and safety
6) Food packaging
7) Nutrition and diet
8) Food and consumer experience and choices
9) Food waste minimisation and valorisation
10) Holistic sustainability of the food systems
Conveners: Thao Minh Ho (University of Helsinki), Kirsi S. Mikkonen (University of Helsinki), Fabio Valoppi (University of Helsinki), Juha-Matti Katajajuuri (Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE))
Anne Charlotte Bunge: Disentangling the sustainability halo surrounding innovations in the food sector – results from a scoping review on the sustainability of novel food system technologies.
Vilja Varhoa, Minna Kaljonen, Roosa Ritola, Kirsi Sonck-Rautio, and Anni Savikurki: Youth visions on sustainable food in Finland 2050
Marja Roitto, and Hanna Tuomisto: Reviewing quantities and reasons for food loss of internationally sourced plant based foods at the beginning of the value chain
Karoliina Rimhanen, Jyrki Aakkula, Kalle Aro, and Pasi Rikkonen: The elements of resilience in the Finnish food system
Sampsa Nisonen, Kirsi Silvennoinen and Juha-Matti Katajajuuri: Food waste amount, type and climate impact in urban and suburban regions in Finnish households
Erkkola M, Korkalo L, Meinilä J, Vepsäläinen H, Walsh H, Nissinen K, Åkerlund M, Korhonen T, Kinnunen S, Silvennoinen K, Forsman L, Raulio S, Niinistö S, Forma L, Saarinen M, Virtanen SM, and the Food Step Study Group: Food Step – a sustainable health-promoting model for food services and early childhood education and care
Anu Reinikainen, Karetta Timonen, and Katri Joensuu: Towards sustainable development goals - Sector specific sustainability criteria and indicators in Finnish dairy, meat processing and bakery sectors